Conventional fabric softener compositions are added to the washing, rinsing, or drying step of the laundry cycle to, for example, soften the laundry and reduce static. Such fabric softeners are often formed of a blend of quaternary ammonium compounds (e.g., salts) or imidazolinium compounds having at least one long chain hydrocarbyl group, isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and additives designed to optimize the properties of the resulting composition. Quaternary ammonium compounds are known to exhibit particularly good fabric softening performance, and IPA is commonly used to decrease the melting temperature of the quaternary ammonium compound in order to improve manufacturing and handling of the resulting fabric softener composition. IPA also functions as a vehicle to make a spontaneous emulsion during the manufacture of the fabric softener composition, thus further improving manufacturing efficiency.
The use of IPA in its standard amount, however, is undesirable from a cost standpoint and also because it is limited in its function (providing no additional benefit to the fabric softening composition other than that discussed above). As such, fabric softener compositions that partially or completely replace IPA with multifunctional materials are desired. Fabric softening compositions with improved performance, i.e., softness, are also desired.